Now, Moor Market can be visited from around the world

Colin Drury

With customer numbers falling way below what was hoped for, it seems Sheffielders aren’t too keen to shop at the new Moor Market.

But now, at least, people on the other side of the world can pay a (virtual) visit.

Sheffield photographer Mike Bellwood has snapped the £18 million facility for Google Maps. It means internet browsers everywhere can take a 365 degree tour inside the entire building.

And the project echoes a scheme undertaken by Mike’s father Eric in 1965. Back then, he was commissioned by the city council’s architecture department to photograph inside the new Castle Market.

“Times have certainly changed,” Mike, 56, of Loxley, tells The Diary today. “My dad shot the images on a large format sheet film camera - where the photographer would disappear under a cloth behind the camera - whereas I use a digital camera with a special lens and technical software to create the 360 degree views.

“But there is a nice symmetry working on this almost 50 years after my dad.”

It’s not the first local business he’s created Google tours for either. The 56-year-old, whose studio is in Stannington, has already shot some 250 places for the internet giant including The Leopold Hotel and Hillsborough football stadium.